Norman Raymel McCaster mostly likely died a few days before his body was found minus head, hands and lower legs at the bottom of an embankment near Mechanicsburg in 2012.

Dr. Scott Denton of Bloomington, a forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy on the then-unidentified torso on Oct. 31, 2012, testified Thursday in the first-degree murder trial of McCaster's wife, 24-year-old Juatasha Denton-McCaster.

Denton described marks on the ends of McCaster's bones that he said were made by the back-and-forth motion of a saw and cuts through the skin made by a sharp knife. There also was evidence of a large animal biting on one of McCaster's lower legs.

Denton said because of the lack of blood in the wounds, he believed the dismemberment occurred after McCaster was dead. There were no obvious signs of trauma or anything that could have caused his death on what he saw of the body, Denton said under questioning by Sangamon County State's Attorney John Milhiser.

“There were no gunshot wounds, stab wounds, no fractures,” Denton said. “There were no injuries that would cause death. There was no heart attack or heart disease.”

He said under cross-examination by Sangamon County assistant public defender Lindsay Evans that he didn't have the victim's head and wouldn't see evidence of an aneurism.

“If we had the head, I could tell you precisely the cause of death,” Denton said.

He said the toxicology report showed evidence of smoking, but that McCaster had no drugs in his system.

McCaster's body was found by an area resident near a creek bed in the 600 block of Griffiths Creek Road near Mechanicsburg on Oct. 29, 2012. The body was later identified as that of McCaster, a 22-year-old Illinois National Guardsman who lived with his wife in the 1400 block of North Grand Avenue West.

Denton-McCaster, who was a student at the University of Illinois Springfield, was arrested Nov. 26, 2012, and charged with concealment of a homicidal death and obstruction of justice. She later was charged with first-degree murder and dismembering a body.

Denton-McCaster has pleaded not guilty, and her attorney suggested in opening statements that McCaster had fallen in with the wrong crowd and that someone else could have killed him.

Among the items recovered were an empty black wallet and cut-up credit cards, a debit card, driver's license, state of Illinois identification card and other wallet-type items belonging to McCaster, he told assistant state's attorney Karen Tharp. Also found was an Oct. 25 receipt from the Dirksen Parkway Lowe's for the purchase of a hand truck and a chest freezer, as well as some packaging for the dolly.

Page 2 of 2 - Later testimony revealed that the purchase of the freezer was canceled by Denton-McCaster within an hour of her buying it.

Other items recovered included packaging for a bathroom mat set, shower curtain, latex gloves and a latex glove box, a Clorox jug and photos of the couple.

Afternoon testimony indicated that Denton-McCaster took two bags of men's shirts, pants and neckties to donate to the Helping Hands Homeless Shelter on Nov. 1.

Prange also testified that visual surveillance and GPS monitoring showed Denton-McCaster made at least two trips to Crete, where her parents live, between Oct. 31 and Nov. 26. She traveled Interstate 72, which would have taken her past the exit to Mechanicsburg.

On Wednesday, Sgt. Rodney Vose of the sheriff's office told the seven-man, five–woman jury that two Walmart receipts found near McCaster's body — one showing the purchase of respiratory masks and a reciprocating saw — led investigators to suspect Denton-McCaster.

Testimony indicated that on three separate visits to the Walmart on North Dirksen Parkway from Oct. 24 through Oct. 26, McCaster also purchased plastic tubs, comforters, sheets, cleaning supplies, a box cutter-type knife, plastic sheeting and a portable fire pit.

Testimony continues Friday in the trial, which is expected to conclude sometime next week.